dan/california

There is no law that Putin recognizes. That is why he has to go, and why we need a massive air/cruise misslie strike in the Russian forces in Ukraine.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-28-22/h_ca197c5149c1d1b6ba767d5924a95ef4 The "classified" given to congress seems to have been fairly grim, which is worrisome since the US intel has been good so far. Or at least it was up until the minute the shooting started.

If the Russians set up their batteries in populated areas they will literally drown in Molotov cocktails, they can barely manage to guard anything in open fields.

We have some pretty nifty ordinance for 120mm mortars, and mortars are not that complicated, or that hard to move. It seems to me some of them should be moving Ukraines way at the maximum possible speed. I am sure the three week course is better than the twelve hour course, but needs must when there is a war on. The students will be attentive.

Xi is not known for sentimentality, and their cites In northern China you have never even heard of with more people than the entire Russian far east.

The border he needs to watch is in the far east, His "friend" Xi might decide since Russian army is over committed and on fire in Ukraine it is a great time take Siberia into "protective custody", and more or less double the size of China. It is isn't like Putin has any friends left.

Running armored vehicles is a MUCH smaller number. All evidence is that they are BARELY maintaining their frontline stuff. I strongly suspect many of the less active reserves are just shells with the expensive bits missing, and the engines seized solid with rust.

They Russians have smashed their military reputation with a sledge hammer, it will take 20 years to fix in the best case scenario.

Criteria can change, one of the exceedingly few things war is good for.

Exactly, now the EU just has to offer visas. It is a lot cheaper to have these guys building houses in outermost London than it is to shoot them.

I would argue for taking a stand before Kyiv is the next Warsaw Ghetto, instead of after. Because we are going to have to take a stand.

And it isn't just the people in the jails, it is the people to run the jails, the military to defend the jails if they are in inconvenient places. This won't be the last very hard, but very necessary decision Zelensky has to make.

The only way this isn't REALLY bad down the road is if the Russians quit and go home. The Ukrainians are fighting as hard as anyone ever has, near as makes no matter. The Russians are starting to use MLRS systems against populated areas, next they will start in with one of their fuel-air atrocities. Before this is over Ukrainian teenage girls are going to be blowing themselves up at Russian checkpoints to take a few Russians to hell with them, unless the Russians GO HOME. Bleeping Bleep people this is an awful mess to make over one old guys delayed midlife crisis. It is a god awful tragedy for 99.999% of Russians, too. Real value of Every asset in Russia is off by 80% this morning, By Friday it might be 95%. FOR WHAT?

Fair enough

Purely as a tactical matter running over a car is stupid. You can break a track, get stuck, or even have the gas tank go off. If his platoon commander is A) alive and b ) sober, neither of which is a given in this sad excuse for an army. he is probably royally pissed off

In order to learn any lessons the Russians would have to tell their troops what is actually going on. That seems to be the exact opposite of their SOP. It is a pretty simple contest between the Ukrainian munitions situation, and the Russians attempting blunder through regardless of the body count. On Current form the Russians aren't winning. I am hoping the epic detonation of Moscow's financial markets on Monday might change some of the relatively small group of minds that matter. That and Putin waving around the nuclear button like a Mardi Gras necklace. Most of these people have children and grandchildren after all.

Yes, a lot. Just a wee bit busier than usual around abouts.

I would settle for a logistics module. Russians sure as hell wish they had paid up for it. This operation might less of a world historical disaster.

Not everyone manages a perfectly timed surrender, even if they wanted to. Maybe the Russians should go home. Go home SOON.

Hang on to hopefully be followed by an actual hanging.

Still wondering how many Polish and or Baltic states special forces types volunteered last Wednesday? Volunteered to spend their leaves chasing Ukrainian girls, of course. Oddly enough the they decided to travel Kyiv in large trucks full of munitions and secure radios. Seems like a strange way to spend a vacation. But who knows?

Once, maybe, barely. If the crews aren't drunk, the important bits haven't been sold on the black market, and the sergeant is having the better kind of hangover. But As soon as the Russians start shooting into NATO air space, NATO is going to Turn Putin's Ukrainian fiasco into the biggest funeral pyre since Saddam tried to retreat from Kuwait. Half of the Russian army in Ukraine would surrender before the planes could reload for a second mission, and the other half wouldn't stop running this side of the Urals.

"Poland’s Border Guard said on Sunday that some 22,000 people have crossed from Polish territory into Ukraine since Thursday." How many of those people were Polish special forces on "leave"? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/27/ukraine-appeals-for-foreign-volunteers-to-join-fight-against-russia

Russian incompetence has simply been epic at every level.

The odds of Taiwan invasion have actually dropped drastically. Xi is smarter than Putin, in better health, and hasn't been lord high/dictator/emperor/demigod nearly as long. He will learn from this. The first lesson is that trying to attack a defensive position with adequate modern munitions is more or less suicidal. And in Taiwan he has to do it across a very unfriendly stretch of ocean. Xi is also pondering that the Russian Army is made of tissue paper, and the tissue paper is on fire in a Ukrainian swamp five thousand miles to the west. Xi is pondering that the population density of the Russian far east is about .5 people per square kilometer. Xi is pondering that Russia has no friends. Xi is pondering if there are far better, and easier places to invade. The kind of place where he could nearly double the size of China. Xi is doing very careful math.